However strange it seems, in this age of austerity for many parents it has never been easier to put their children through independent school.

The reason is the growing availability of bursaries, when schools provide assistance towards their fees for families on low incomes. According to the Independent Schools Council (ISC), its schools handed out just over £300 million in means-tested support last year, an increase of 6.7 per cent on the previous year.

Now, for a growing number of parents, the issue is not so much whether their income will stretch to an independent education, but where to find these bursaries and how much they are worth.

To help navigate this maze, the Good Schools Guide this term launched an advisory service for bursaries and scholarships, providing details on what support is available, the criteria for selection and how and when to apply.

“There are a lot of parents who could take advantage of the opportunities, if only they knew about them,” says Susan Hamlyn, director of the Good Schools Guide Advice Service. The service draws on a database of information from around 500 schools, set up in response to a 10-fold increase in inquiries about fee support over the past five years, she says.

Support ranges from bursaries worth 100 per cent of school fees, to scholarships worth £60 a year. Figures from the ISC’s latest census show a third of pupils at independent schools receive some financial support. For the majority, this is either a discount, usually for siblings, staff, the Armed Forces or the clergy, or as a scholarship, based on academic excellence or performance in a specific discipline, often music or sport.

But about half of the assistance goes to the 39,825 pupils ­– 7.8 per cent of the total – in receipt of a means-tested bursary. While scholarships average some £3,016 per pupil, bursaries are worth an average of £7,619 per year, set against an average annual fee of £11,505 for a day school and £27,612 for a boarding pupil.

About 40 per cent of pupils who get bursaries have more than half their fees paid by the school, while one in eight pays no fees at all.

The shift in emphasis towards bursaries and away from scholarships reflects a trend as independent schools try to recruit a more diverse population, says Barnaby Lenon, the ISC chairman and former headmaster of Harrow.

“It just seemed a bit silly to give large amounts of money to small numbers of children whose parents could be quite wealthy,” he says. “It was possible to offer a larger number of awards to parents who would not otherwise be able to apply to the school.”

In part, this shift is a response to the Charity Commission’s insistence that independent schools show evidence of benefit to the wider community if they are to keep their charitable status.

It also fills the gap left by the scrapping, in 1997, of the assisted places scheme, which subsidised places at fee-paying schools for lower income families.

For most schools, the bursaries vary according to how much money the school has available and the family’s financial position. Often there is also an element of academic assessment, with awards going to pupils with the greatest potential.

At the independent Manchester Grammar School (MGS), which has moved entirely away from scholarships in favour of bursaries, about 240 pupils out of 1,550 are getting help with fees this year, says Michael Strother, director of admissions. The average level of support is 87 per cent of fees, which in 2013-14 stand at £11,055 a year.

“Over the last few years we have been able to increase the number of full bursaries, and we’re very proud of that,” he says. “We see ourselves as a school interested in widening aspiration amongst our pupils at all levels, but particularly in fostering social mobility.”

The school publishes a scale of the assistance available, which this year goes from 100 per cent of fees where household income is £24,000 or less, to one per cent for income of £42,500. The scale is revised each year according to how much money is available.

The majority of bursaries at MGS are awarded for pupils entering Year 7, based on academic potential, although some are also available for the sixth form.

Almost all schools offering bursaries will ask parents to complete a financial circumstances form, says Mike Lower, general secretary of the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association.

This has to be supported by evidence including bank statements and mortgage statements. Bursaries are normally subject to annual review and may change if family circumstances change, he adds. Parents who did not qualify on admission to the school can usually apply later if their income drops.

Most schools carry out the financial checks themselves, but an increasing number are outsourcing this role to specialist companies. Neil Robson, director of Bursary Administration Limited, says they carry out about 2,000 assessments a year on behalf of schools. Most involve a home visit, and will look at expenditure as well as income.

“We try to get a rounded view of what the family can afford, and whether their financial planning is realistic for someone who wants to send their children to private school,” he adds.

Merchant Taylors’ offers around £1 million a year in bursaries at its boys’ and girls’ schools in Crosby. About 17 per cent of pupils at the two schools receive assistance, worth up to 100 per cent of the £10,119 annual fees.

“When you are giving a family the equivalent of £70,000, you need to know the money is being used appropriately,” Robinson says.

At Merchant Taylors’, assessments take academic potential into account. “It is for very able children, who we know will really benefit from what we offer, and whose parents are not in the position of being able to afford it,” she adds.

Jane Miller applied for a bursary at Merchant Taylors’ for her daughter Cat, and this year will receive assistance worth £8,145. Combined with a scholarship of £160, this leaves the family’s contribution at £1,814.

“There is no way Cat would have been able to go if we hadn’t been offered the assisted place,” Miller says. Cat, now 18, got 11 A* grades in her GCSEs, and five As at AS level.

While MGS and Merchant Taylors’ offer bursaries from Year 7 – although Merchant Taylors’ is looking to extend these into its junior school – help is also available for younger children.

One in 10 pupils at Chafyn Grove School in Salisbury, for pupils aged three to 13, receives a means-tested bursary, says headmaster Eddy Newton. One to two per cent of pupils get support worth 40 per cent or more of the fees, which are up to £14,985 a year for day pupils in Years 4 to 8.

For the pupils who benefit, these awards can be life-changing. Sammi Chekroud received a full bursary throughout his seven years at MGS, and is now in his second year of an experimental psychology degree at New College, Oxford.

He says he had been bored at primary school, but thrived on the challenge offered by MGS. “I’m certain that had I been at another school, I would not be at thisuniversity.”